Episodes
Episodes
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Episode 59: The Stars Are All My Friends (1991)
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
History was made with the Original Song Oscar nominees from 1991, as three songs from one movie made the list. Those songs came from the Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast, which was a landmark film in more ways than its song nominations. Host Jeff Commings guides you through this major year for movie songs, highlighting a worldwide hit by Bryan Adams and one of the two songs to survive a major retooling of Steven Spielberg's movie about a grown-up Peter Pan.
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Episode 58: I’m a Devil on the Run (1990)
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim earned his first Oscar nomination for writing a song for the action film Dick Tracy, pitting himself for the industry's highest award against a number-one song by Jon Bon Jovi, and a rare song composition by John Williams. Host Jeff Commings also details the hit songs that missed out on a nomination, including others that Sondheim wrote for Dick Tracy, and an Alan Menken song performed by Elton John for Rocky V.
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Episode 57: I Guess It Must Be Fate (1989)
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Dean Pitchford returns to the show to talk about achieving his fourth Oscar nomination, this time for the love ballad "After All." He discusses writing a more "mature" song than he had written for previous films, why Cher and Peter Cetera didn't record their vocals at the same time, and why he felt his song had little chance to win the Original Song Oscar. After listening to all five nominated songs on this episode, you can decide for yourself which song deserved to win the Academy Award for 1989.
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Episode 56: Riding on the Water (1988)
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Only three songs were nominated for the Academy Award in 1988, the first time the list of nominees was that low since the 1930s. An Academy rule forced the list to be cut to three in that year, and the ones that made the final list gave Oscar voters a tough choice over which should be picked as the best of the year. Host Jeff Commings details those three songs, and mentions a comeback song from The Beach Boys that might have finished in fourth place in nominations voting.
Monday Jan 15, 2024
Episode 55: Let ‘Em Say We’re Crazy (1987)
Monday Jan 15, 2024
Monday Jan 15, 2024
Only one of the Oscar-nominated songwriters for 1987 had previously been invited to the Academy Awards, giving us 10 men and women getting their first chances to win an Oscar. They all gave us a list of five nominated songs -- many of which have become classics -- that made the competition for the Academy Award very tight that year. The public loved many of the songs as well, with three of the five Oscar nominees earning a spot at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Host Jeff Commings introduces the songwriters of all five songs, and lists a few songs that just missed the cut.
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Episode 54: If Love Can See Us Through (1986)
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Academy voters increasingly became aware of the synergy between Hollywood and the music industry, voting for a Billboard #1 song for its Oscar for the past five years. Would that continue with the nominated songs from 1986? Two number-one songs were in contention, including a song performed by two mice and another for a sultry love scene for an action movie. Host Jeff Commings tells the stories behind the five nominated songs on this episode of The Best Song Podcast.
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Episode 53: I Have Learned to Let You Go (1985)
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Monday Jan 01, 2024
After the historic list of Oscar-nominated songs of 1984, the five nominees for 1985 had a lot to live up to. On this episode of The Best Song Podcast, host Jeff Commings tells of Lionel Richie's double nomination in the same year as his successful "We Are the World" composition, and the popular movie songs that missed out on a nomination.
Monday Dec 25, 2023
Episode 52: I Just Wanna Cheer (1984)
Monday Dec 25, 2023
Monday Dec 25, 2023
Dean Pitchford returns to The Best Song Podcast to talk about bringing the 1984 movie Footloose to the big screen, and finding the best collaborators to write the songs from the hit soundtrack. That includes working with Kenny Loggins, who wrote and recorded the title song under very interesting circumstances. Host Jeff Commings talks with Pitchford about that Oscar-nominated song as well as "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and working with Deniece Williams. The lives of many of the nominated songs after the Academy Awards were tainted by lawsuits, but others were boosted by new lives on the Broadway stage.
The Best Song Podcast
Bing Crosby. Frank Sinatra. Irene Cara. Celine Dion. These are some of the most famous singers who have introduced songs that have won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
But what about the songwriters who created the music and lyrics? You might know Irving Berlin, Stevie Wonder, and Alan Menken. This podcast will introduce you to other legendary songwriters such as Sammy Cahn, Johnny Mercer, Paul Francis Webster, Ray Evans, and Jay Livingston. The stories of creating their songs are just as interesting as the songs themselves.
Settle in for this limited podcast series as creator and host Jeff Commings takes you through 90 years of movie music!
Contact Jeff Commings at jeffswim@aol.com.